This second publication in the Conversaciones/Conversations series contains a collection of interviews between the Argentine artist, industrial designer and theorist Tomás Maldonado and writer María Amalia García with an essay by Alejandro Crispiani. Maldonado discusses his early work with the avant-garde art movements in Argentina during the 1940s and 50s and his search for a rationalist approach that would later lead him to the world of architecture, design and aesthetic theory.

Tomás Maldonado, born in Buenos Aires in 1922, achieved international recognition for his work at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, Germany, one of the most important European schools of design since the Bauhaus where he was professor and rector from 1954–1967, and for his iconic industrial designs such as those he created for the Italian firm Olivetti. Lesser known is his pioneering role as one of the founders of Arte Concreto-Invención, an Argentinean avant-garde movement characterized by the use of irregular frames, geometric shapes, and a systematic approach to art making.

The digital version of this book features interviews with the artist, archival images from the Ulm School; full text reproductions of important and rare publications, et al.

About the authors:María Amalia García, is a researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas [National Council for Scientific and Technical Research] at the Instituto de Teoría e Historia del Arte “Julio E. Payró” [Julio E. Payró Institute for the Theory and History of Art], Universidad de Buenos Aires, who specializes in abstract art from Argentina and Brazil.

Alejandro Crispiani, a professor in the Department of Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile contributed an introductory essay on Maldonado and the idea of the “project” as a driving force in art and design.